


In The Woods Somewhere

by The_Ghost_King



Series: Hozier Inspired [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Werecreatures, Brian Banner's A+ Parenting, Bruce is a werewolf, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inspired by a Hozier Song, M/M, No beta reader, Song: In The Woods Somewhere (Hozier), The hulk doesn't exist, Title from a Hozier Song, We Die Like Men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 10:55:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20563133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Ghost_King/pseuds/The_Ghost_King
Summary: The only thought in Bruce’s mind is Run. As fast and as far away as he can. He can hear Ross’s voice in the distance and the voices of his men too. Bruce just wants to leave.





	In The Woods Somewhere

**Author's Note:**

> This is longer than any oneshot I've uploaded in a while but idk if it's any good tbh.  
Hope you enjoy nonetheless!

The only thought in Bruce’s mind is  _ Run _ . As fast and as far away as he can. He can hear Ross’s voice in the distance and the voices of his men too. Bruce just wants to  _ leave _ .

He’d woken up in an unfamiliar place, Tony hadn’t been beside him and alarm bells had gone off in Bruce’s ears. His head was warm and it throbbed. His entire body had been covered in sweat. The wolf within him had been frantic. Worried about Tony, worried about where he was and who might have him, worried about the quickest way back to Tony. Back to his  _ mate _ and the life they have together.

Bruce had broken himself out as quickly as possible. Taking out as many of Ross’s men in as possible whilst he did so. Now he’s running.

He’s out in the woods. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere and Ross had taken all his possessions. None of the tracking devices Tony had made were still on him. He had no way of calling for help. Nothing at all. But he has to keep going, has to keep running. He needs to get back to Tony even if it kills him. But he’d like it if he lived.

It’s been mere minutes or hours or anything in between. It’s still pitch black all around him, the thick forest is nothing but silhouettes around him. Bruce cannot hear Ross or his men anymore but he knows that they’re still after him. He’s too weak to shift so he has to limp along. He follows the north star and thinks of Tony who is worried about him back home. Probably utilising all his tech to locate Bruce and asking JARVIS to break into the satellites around the planet again. Bruce smiles to himself at the thought of his mate. 

He loves Tony, he’s going to propose soon, everything in their life seemed to be falling in place until Ross had kidnapped him that is.

Bruce hadn’t been fully aware of how much he hates running until now.

Running used to be what he did, always.

He ran from any confrontation, from his problems, from his life, from everything he didn’t want to acknowledge about himself, and there used to be so much he didn't want to acknowledge.

His past mistakes, his father’s prison sentence, and his mother’s death, his sexuality, his lycanthropy.

Bruce had thought himself a monster for almost as long as he can remember.

His father had beat it into him, with fists, his belt, and threat upon threat upon threat.

He still has the scars from those times to prove it.

Running is what had landed him in Ross’s clutches the first time.

He’d wolved out and hurt Betty and he’d ran, her father had used that as an opportunity to capture him.

They’d held him captive for close to a year. Experimenting on him, and trying to drag the lycanthropy from his veins. There was nothing tethering him to the mortal coil back then. He regained conscience every time hoping that the next time he closed his eyes he wouldn’t wake up.

But that didn’t happen.

His Wolf kept him alive.

His wolf hadn’t had the strength for a full transformation but he’d had the strength to use his healing abilities. And that’s how Bruce survived throughout the months.

Until they forgot to give him a new dose of sedative and his hands were uncuffed for a new ‘experiment’ they were going to do.

The agony coursing through his nerves was strong enough to spark a flame that turned into a fire that unleashed his wolf.

He’d woken up miles away, not knowing where he was or exactly what he’d done but his body ached and he tasted blood in his mouth.

Tony had told him, later, that he’d destroy the entire facility on his rampage, it’s one thing in his past that Bruce will never regret.

He’d continued running after that, never staying anywhere long, for fear that Ross might catch up to him. That’s how he ended up hiding in plain sight.

NYC welcomed Bruce Roberts without any issue and Bruce set out to make a new life for himself.

That’s how he’d met Tony, hiding and on the run. Lying about everything he was and had ever been.

He’d been a volunteer at a local science museum when he’d seen Tony for the first time. He hadn’t recognised Tony at first. He’d just seen him walking around inside in jeans and a hoodie and he’d been compelled to watch him. Bruce had been on break so he’d just let himself oggle this attractive rumpled-looking man because he wouldn’t approach him anyway.

Tony had noticed him though, as he always did.

* * *

Bruce still doesn’t know where to go. The forest seems endless and he can’t shift and he just wants Tony. He just wants to go  _ Home _ .

* * *

His first date with Tony brings them to a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant. 

It’s quiet and Tony is on a first-name basis with both the owners and most of the staff. Bruce lets him order for the both of them and he’s mesmerised by the sound of Italian falling from Tony’s lips.

It became addictive and his wolf liked Tony too which meant there only good things to come.

* * *

Bruce is getting kind of tired. He just is. Normally he could keep running like this forever, far longer than any baseline human would be able to keep up with but not today apparently. Not now.

_ Fuck _ , he doesn’t know what Ross did to him. The extent of the experimentation. How much he’s done. What he’s touched. What he’s  _ after _ but Bruce knows that if he ever gets the opportunity to, when he’s back to full strength, he’ll tear that man to  _ shreds _ , no hesitation.

He longs for Tony. For his warm arms and warm breath and the warmth of his personality. For the lethargy that comes with being held by him. For the way he softly sings whenever Bruce has a bad night.

Tony has never judged him, has never told him he’s a monster or something to be experimented on. Tony has never told him that he’s  _ wrong  _ somehow.

To Tony he’s always been right. 

Bruce can almost hear his voice, almost,  _ almost _ .

He runs further and further. Trying to keep his pace high but his body is tiring and he can’t shift. What had Ross  _ done  _ to him to sedate his wolf like this? Normally he could feel that part of himself right underneath the surface. Waiting for any cue of Bruce’s to jump into action, helping him heal from physical injury, enhancing his other senses. 

Bruce wonders if this is what normal humans feel like. If this is how they experience the world.

Dark and scary, with no obvious paths to follow and with exhaustion constantly licking at their heels.

Bruce does not envy them if it is so. He’s wished before to be like them. To be  _ normal _ and not a shifting gruel. An  _ abomination _ . He’s learned though, by now, that there’s nothing wrong with him.

He doesn’t know how much time has passed but he misses Tony. The woods have not changed. The world seems to be getting darker and darker and darker.

At least he thinks he’s lost Ross and his men, at least he can get to safety now.

He’s  _ tired _ but he can’t rest. He just keeps going and going and going seeing Tony’s face every time he blinks.

* * *

One of Bruce’s fondest memories is of the first time Tony asked him to shift. 

He’d found out that Bruce was a werewolf a month or two after their first date. They were officially going steady and when Bruce met Tony’s best friends he’d been introduced as his  _ boyfriend _ . 

The guilt about all the lies had been eating Bruce alive for so long and one night he’d just up and confessed. Told Tony the entire story, told him about Ross and his fake name and every other thing he’d lied about.

Tony had told him to leave his apartment and Bruce hadn’t expected to ever hear back from him again.

Tony showed up to Bruce’s apartment three days later armed with a trolley filled with books on lycanthropy, his laptop, his tablet, and some more technological equipment.

“Tell me everything, again, but slower this time,” Tony had told him and Bruce had obeyed. Hope sparking in his chest that maybe this would work out, that maybe this would be fine.

“Banner huh,” Tony had said, “I guess I can get used to that.” His smile had been warm and wide. Reassuring Bruce in a way that only Tony can.

He wishes for that reassuring smile now as he runs through the woods but he knows he won’t get it. Not unless he makes it home, not unless he makes it back to the love of his life.

To his  _ mate _ , to the man he wants to marry someday.

It’s been so long,  _ so long _ , and Bruce is incredibly tired, still. His wolf has yet to reawaken and Bruce is starting to get really worried about that.

_ What had Ross done to him? _

He still doesn’t know where he is exactly but the moon is bright and round above him, missing only the tiniest sliver. So close, yet so far.

This close to the full moon it would normally be pulling at him. Beckoning him closer and closer, telling him to shift and lose himself to his wolf. 

Now there is nothing and Bruce has never before felt this lonely. He runs longer and longer though, the only thing keeping him upright is willpower. His legs are weak and they hurt like hell from all the running. His breathing is unsteady and quick. His lungs burn with every breath but he won’t stop. Can’t stop.

That’s when he sees it, a glimpse of asphalt up ahead.

Bruce feels rejuvenated and full of energy again. He’s dashing closer to what he hopes is asphalt and stops just behind the treeline. There’s a single lane in front of him. One asphalted road with no signs along it to indicate which way it leads. 

Bruce looks up at the moon again, closes his eyes and feels for even the slightest connection.

The slightest pull.

Deep within him something stirs and he follows the road from the forest.

Going north, towards Tony.

* * *

Bruce walks all night, he doesn’t stop for a single moment. He doesn’t eat or sleep or drink anything. He just keeps walking, knowing that if he does so it will work out.

His wolf has been stirring very slowly as the night passed. With the first rays of sunlight touching the treetops it still wasn’t fully awake but it had become more and more aware.

As it came back to awareness Bruce also felt more and more awake.

He felt stronger and surer, gaining more and more confidence.

As the morning truly began he moved further into the forest. He could still see the road but he hoped that anyone who was trying wouldn’t be able to see him through the bushes and trees.

He didn’t know how long it had been. 

His wolf was slowly waking up and it honed his senses. 

Before long he could discern between smells and hear the rustle of leaves and the pitter-patter of small critter shooting around in the brush. As his wolf awakened further Bruce also came to the realisation that he really needed to eat. He’d been starving for a while now but it was getting worse.

Ross had probably fed him nothing but the bare minimum. Injected the nutrients into his blood through some sort of shot. Kept him weak in case he ever tried to escape. 

Bruce is smug, thinking about how he escaped anyway. One-upping Ross has been one of the few things that have kept him going.

Spite and Tony, that’s what he’s been surviving on.

He wanders further, following the road from a distance and hoping it leads him to civilisation.

* * *

A sharp cry sounds from somewhere to his left. 

Bruce shifts and sprints towards it without any conscious thought. 

The only thing keeping him from sprinting into the clearing without thought is his own cautious nature, but it’s close.

Because he had recognised that cry of pain, had suddenly recognised an all too tantalising and all too familiar smell.

_ Tony _ .

He’s chained to a tree, chain across his stomach and wrapped around him. Handcuffed and with bound feet. 

Bruce wants to  _ snarl _ .

Because of course, it’s Ross, standing in front of Tony, standing in front of his  _ mate _ , holding the only person Bruce cares about in this whole world captive because of  _ him _ .

He can feel the rage that he used to fear from his father bubbling up in him. He can feel it simmering and heating him up from the inside. He knows that when he boils over when the rage gets too  _ white-hot _ to bear, he’ll snap. He’ll dissolve into a fitful rage and kill every single threat in the area  _ or die trying. _

But Bruce isn’t there yet, his fuse has always been much longer than his father’s, and even though he’s exhausted, terrified and more feral than he’s been in years he waits.

He’s a predator.

Waiting.

Observing.

Listening.

Stalking his prey.

Ross speaks first, “You know Mister Stark, I really wonder what your father would have thought. Knowing you brought a  _ mutt _ into your home. Into your  _ bed _ even. God, son,” Ross tutts, “I can almost feel his disappointment, can’t you?” 

Tony isn’t saying anything but just as Bruce can smell Ross’s satisfaction, his cruelty and his overwhelming disgust and need for revenge against Bruce, so can he smell Tony’s loathing for the man before him.

Tony’s always been much stronger than him and Bruce admires the icy silence he’s committed himself to when Bruce is a volcano waiting to erupt and almost overflowing with it.

“We were friends, the two of us when he was still alive. The wider world hadn’t heard much of lycanthropy yet but we were the first put on a division to study them. They’re not  _ human _ , they’re devils. Monsters who have no shred of humanity,” Ross snickers, “your precious  _ Bruce _ most of all. His entire family consisted of them. His father nothing more than a deadbeat drunk who killed his own wife in a fit of rage. His mother too busy trying to please her husband to do anything about the abuse, She had him hit her in hopes of sparing her child. It’s all so tragic, but regardless of any miscellaneous details, their son grew up to be a monster anyway.”

Tony’s lips are pulled in a thin line and the sheer force of the anger rolling off of him in waves is enough to make Bruce flatten his ears against his head. He’d known Tony for a long time, seen him in sickness and in health. Been with him for the worst and best moments of his life and yet, he’d never experienced this type of anger before.

“He’ll come, sooner or later, he’s still in the area and all we have to do is bait him with you and he’ll walk into our hands willingly. Once we get him, Mister Stark, your freedom will be returned to you. You’d have to find yourself some other boy toy though, this one will be out of commission soon enough.”

Bruce can feel it, the exact moment that Tony snaps. 

Ross has steadily been inching closer and closer to Tony as he speaks, looming over him, pressing their faces close together. Tony’s eyes had been flashing with anger and as Ross said the last words he’d finally crossed a line.

Tony spat on his face.

“Fuck you and everything you stand for you fucknugget. If Howard would be disappointed in me for treating another human being with some fucking decency I’m  _ glad. _ ” Tony’s voice is harsh and sharp.

Ross wipes the spit from his face and cleans his hands with a tissue that one of his minions hands him.

Then he holds up his hand, the one with his wedding band and a few more rings on it, and backhands Tony across the face.

Bruce smells blood and his world dissolves into a rage-filled  _ red _ .

No one was expecting him just yet so they were all caught off guard when a large brown wolf jumped at general Ross from the shadows. Before any of the military personel can grab their guns and shoot Bruce has already torn out Ross’s throat.

His head severed from his body lying in a puddle of blood that is slowly soaking into the underground. 

Bruce attacks the nearest guards next, not going for the kill here but maiming them severely nonetheless. Then he stands in front of Tony, making himself as big as possible.

His hackles are raised and he’s growling, showing everyone around them his teeth.

He knows he could easily die here, but he’d be willing to do so, for Tony.

No one moves for what could be anywhere between seconds or hours. Bruce can smell the fear of the soldiers around him and he can smell Tony who has relaxed significantly now that Bruce is here. Bruce can hear the slightest scrapes of metal and he hopes for  _ time _ . He hopes that the soldiers wait, just a little bit longer. Wait, long enough for Bruce to figure out how to get not only him but Tony too out of here without either of them dying.

Bruce is big as a wolf, Tony is completely hidden by him in his current stance and Bruce could run much faster than the military could chase in his wolf form even with Tony on his back.

The soldier’s breathing is heavy and there’s a soft buzz coming from behind Bruce.

One of the soldiers places his hand on his gun and tries to inch closer, Bruce snarls at him and the man drops his gun in fear.

Ross helped him in this aspect. He dehumanised Bruce so thoroughly and vilified him to the extent that the soldiers think they’re dealing with a feral wolf the size of a polar bear who will kill them gruesomely without thought and without mercy. Even though Bruce has definitely already disproven that by not immediately attacking and instead waiting and actively shielding Tony with his own body.

So Bruce snarls and snaps his teeth and growls. He raises his hackles and makes himself even bigger and it keeps the soldiers at bay.

Their leader is dead and Bruce is a threat they have never been formally trained to handle.

Bruce knows that Tony is getting himself loose as he analysis all this. He’s always got something on him, he’s always resourceful and Bruce loves him even more for it.

There’s a snap and Bruce hears the dull thunk of the chains hitting the ground. He waits until he can feel Tony’s hands reaching into his fur and clutching it before moving.

He leaps forward and feels Tony’s body slam into his. The leap allows Tony to properly settle on his back and clutch the fur near Bruce’s neck. 

Bruce leaps towards the forest line, trying to get to cover so the soldiers won’t be able to shoot at Tony anymore. Who is an obvious target on Bruce’s back.

As he leaps the soldiers do finely jump into action, fumbling for their guns and aiming.

Shots whizz past the two of them and Bruce keeps running, praying that nothing hits Tony.

An exclamation of pain dissolves his hope in seconds.

Bruce wants to stop immediately and does slow down but Tony urges him to keep moving.

“My car is nearby sweetheart,” Tony grunts, “just get me there, I have some medical supplies and I’m pretty sure it’s just a graze. We can get the hell out of here and to safety, alright? Just keep running, keep running Bruce baby keep running.” 

So Bruce does.

He rushes on and follows the directions Tony groans till he sees one of Tony’s cars.

Bruce crouches down and allows Tony to carefully slide off his back. He can faintly hear the soldiers but they’re far away enough that Bruce isn’t too worried. 

“There’s clothes for you in the trunk so you can change back no problem,” Tony says and Bruce immediately does. Tony hands him a pair of boxers and Bruce pulls them on and opens the backseat door for him.

Tony lays down and Bruce frantically checks him over.

“I’m fine Bruce,” Tony says, “We gotta get out of here,” Bruce continues checking though because Tony has lied about the severity of his injuries before but this time he’s been truthful. It’s nothing but a graze and Bruce exhales in relief. 

He cleans the graze and wraps it up before telling Tony to stay low as he climbs into the driver’s seat.

Bruce drives off towards their home, glad to be back with Tony.

.

.

.

On the news, all they talk about is that the body of General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross has been found.

In the woods somewhere.


End file.
